Fiction and Nonfiction Books About Racism

In the introduction to Black is the Body, Emily Bernard confronts readers with a compelling reminder: “Blackness is an art, not a science. It is a paradox: intangible and visceral; a situation and a story.” Throughout the twelve essays that follow, Bernard seamlessly exalts and examines the complexities of Black embodiment and the importance of familial legacies with soul-searing depth. Whether recounting a life-altering brush with violence, the precarious catch-22 of being “the Black friend,” colorism, or the gruesome history and harm of racial slurs, Bernard’s prose transcends the page with ease. Black is the Body is a testament to the necessity of Black storytellers.

An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago boldly documents the aftermath of gun violence, poverty, and a city’s failure to protect its own citizens. With empathy, award-winning journalist Alex Kotlowitz recounts the summer of 2013 by uplifting the voices of mothers who’ve lost their sons, men who seek forgiveness for the crimes they’ve committed, and teens who mourn the loss of friends whose lives ended far too soon. It’s a narrative that dares readers to bear witness, to feel the loss and the “screams and howling and prayers and longing” within its pages. A chilling yet noteworthy read, An American Summer is a meaningful account of love, loss, and survival.

A wondrous and shattering award-winning novel that follows 12 characters from Native communities: all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, all connected to one another in ways they may not yet realize. A book with “so much jangling energy and brings so much news from a distinct corner of American life that it’s a revelation” (The New York Times). It is fierce, funny, suspenseful, and impossible to put down — full of poetry and rage, exploding onto the page with urgency and force.

Pulitzer Prize finalist Laila Lalami’s latest novel, The Other Americans, begins with the loss of a patriarch and his daughter Nora’s return to her hometown. Eclipsed by the weight of her father’s death, Nora is forced to reckon with the expectations of her mother (who wants Nora to become a lawyer) and her conventionally successful sister. In an attempt to cope with her grief and escape from the pressures of her family, Nora reconnects with her childhood classmate Jeremy. As the two grow closer, they’re confronted with new desires and old traumas. An engrossing narrative about immigration, family, and devotion, Lalami’s well-crafted novel is a poignant page-turner.

A brilliant analysis of the foundations of racist policing in America: the day-to-day brutalities, largely hidden from public view, endured by Black youth growing up under constant police surveillance and the persistent threat of physical and psychological abuse. Drawing upon twenty-five years of experience rep­resenting Black youth in Washington, D.C.’s juve­nile courts, Kristin Henning confronts America’s irrational, manufactured fears of these young peo­ple and makes a powerfully compelling case that the crisis in racist American policing begins with its relationship to Black children. Especially in the wake of the recent unprece­dented, worldwide outrage at racial injustice and inequality, The Rage of Innocence is an essential book for our moment.

In this empowering cross-country travelogue, journalist and activist Paola Ramos embarks on a journey to find the communities of people defining the controversial term, “Latinx.” She introduces us to the indigenous Oaxacans who rebuilt the main street in a post-industrial town in upstate New York, the “Las Poderosas” who fight for reproductive rights in Texas, the musicians in Milwaukee whose beats reassure others of their belonging, as well as drag queens, environmental activists, farmworkers, and the migrants detained at our border. Drawing on intensive field research and her own personal story, Ramos chronicles how “Latinx” has given rise to a sense of collectivity and solidarity among Latinos unseen in this country for decades.

In the opening pages of Biased, social psychologist Jennifer L. Eberhardt suggests that “we all have ideas about race, even the most open-minded among us.” Throughout Biased, Eberhardt sifts through the origins, impact, and implications of racial biases and what they reveal about our culture, while challenging how we consciously and subconsciously perpetuate or internalize racism in our day-to-day lives. Fusing research with personal accounts, Eberhardt traces how racial bias has placed communities of color at risk. From microaggressions to police brutality, Biased is an unblinking, in-depth rumination on inequality and its roots.

In development as a television series starring and adapted by Greta Lee. Poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong fearlessly and provocatively blends memoir, cultural criticism, and history to expose fresh truths about racialized consciousness in America. Part memoir and part cultural criticism, this collection is vulnerable, humorous, and provocative. Its relentless and riveting pursuit of vital questions around family and friendship, art and politics, identity and individuality, will change the way you think about our world. Minor Feelings forms a portrait of one Asian American psyche — and of a writer’s search to both uncover and speak the truth.

Reminiscent of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and George Schuyler’s Black No More, Maurice Carlos Ruffin’s remarkable debut centers around an unnamed narrator who’s perpetually conflicted about his place in the world as a Black man. Throughout the novel, Ruffin’s troubled protagonist grovels at the feet of his white colleagues in an attempt to become a full partner at his law firm, while urging his biracial son to use skin-bleaching cream to lighten his skin. As the story progresses, readers discover the narrator’s ultimate plan: to cover the cost of an experimental procedure that could make his son look completely white. Haunted by his own past, his incarcerated father’s absence, and the limitations of racism, Ruffin’s troubled antihero is forced to confront his inner demons in an unexpected and irrevocable way.

In Mira Jacob’s buzzworthy graphic memoir, the complexities of race, love, and coping with the 2016 presidential election take center stage and are told with wisdom, heart, and wit. Crystallized by a series of conversations with her biracial 6-year-old son, family members, and close friends, Jacob’s book dares to answer questions that many fail to ask out of fear. Through each panel, readers not only gain a deeper sense of what matters most to Jacob but a deeper understanding of the world we live in, for better or worse. Good Talk‘s pages hum with humanity, humor, and relatability; it’s a delightful memoir and an American classic in the making.

In this beautifully written masterwork, the Pulitzer Prize–winner and bestselling author of Caste chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life. From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves.

In Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul, Eddie Glaude explores the current state of racial equality in post-Obama America and the deferred dreams that Obama’s historic presidency failed to fulfill. Each page challenges readers to realize that America’s “democratic principles do not exist in a space apart from [its] national commitment to white supremacy.” An enlightening meditation on American racism, it’s a profound call to arms for citizens who dream of a more just future.

In her debut essay collection, Austin Channing Brown writes, “I offer this story in hopes that we will embody a community not afraid to name whiteness [and] celebrate Blackness.” Seamlessly, the bestselling activist reflects on her journey as a Black woman in America, as a storyteller, and as a believer in freedom and faith. Infused with courage, wisdom, and empathy, Brown’s essays reveal the importance of unapologetically telling your story. As Brown makes clear in the collection’s opening chapter, I’m Still Here is “not about condemning white people but about rejecting the assumption — sometimes spoken, sometimes not — that white is right.”

Nicole Chung was born severely premature, placed for adoption by her Korean parents, and raised by a white family in a sheltered Oregon town. From childhood, she heard the story of her adoption as a comforting, prepackaged myth. She believed that her biological parents had made the ultimate sacrifice in the hope of giving her a better life, that forever feeling slightly out of place was her fate as a transracial adoptee. But as Nicole grew up — facing prejudice her adoptive family couldn’t see, finding her identity as an Asian American and as a writer, becoming ever more curious about where she came from — she wondered if the story she’d been told was the whole truth. With warmth, candor, and startling insight, Nicole Chung tells of her search for the people who gave her up, which coincided with the birth of her own child.

In Ta-Nehisi Coates’s fiction debut, readers meet Hiram Walker, a young slave who possesses a remarkable gift. As the novel begins, Hiram and his owner’s son Maynard (who is also Hiram’s half-brother) are en route to the Lockless plantation. Their journey takes a fatal turn when a crumbling bridge costs Maynard his life and floods Hiram’s mind with otherworldly visions. After the accident, Hiram’s only desire is to escape Lockless, a yearning that leads him to become a conductor in the Underground Railroad and forces him to reckon with the cost of freedom. A speculative imagining of America’s past, The Water Dancer is an applause-worthy debut from a tried and true visionary.

Throughout Stony the Road, award-winning scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. investigates the significance and lingering impact of the era between Reconstruction and the emergence of the civil rights movement. Immersive, vibrant, and impeccably written, Stony the Road delves into the ways in which America’s current dilemmas are rooted in its failure to fully reckon with its own history. This crucial homage to struggle, triumph, and justice reminds us of how “the forces of white supremacy did their best to undermine” progress, and the reasons why we persist despite them.

Ocean Vuong begins his bestselling debut novel with a brief yet memorable sentence: “Let me begin again.” Written in the form of a letter penned by a 28-year-old writer to his illiterate mother, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous delves deep into the past of its narrator and the past of those who came before him. A stunning mediation on immigration, intergenerational trauma, queerness, and belonging, Vuong’s awe-inducing novel is a soul-stirringly poetic story about growing up, forgiveness, and the unbreakable bond between a son and his mother.

In Tell Me Who You Are, Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi ask hundreds of people across the U.S. one question: How has race, culture, or intersectionality impacted your life? A journey that began in Anchorage, Alaska, and ended in Charlottesville, Virginia, Tell Me Who You Are is a collection of first-person accounts that reveal how systemic racism and prejudice shapes our lives. Through the experiences of a Black Creole woman from New Orleans, a young man who stands up for himself and his undocumented friends when they’re denied entry into a gay bar, a woman from Waco, Texas, reckoning with her hometown’s violent past, a Lakota man who finds strength through restorative justice, and a woman from Philadelphia who survived her family’s transphobia, we’re reminded that “everybody should be able to speak up” and share their story. Each voice amplified by these pages proves the importance of sharing your truth.

Soon to be a Hulu Original series, Willis Wu doesn’t perceive himself as the protagonist in his own life. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental Making a Weird Face or even Disgraced Son, but as always, he’s relegated to a prop. Yet every day, he leaves his tiny room in a Chinatown SRO and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where Black and White, a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. He’s a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy — the most respected role that anyone who looks like him can attain. Or is it? After stumbling into the spotlight, Willis finds himself launched into a wider world than he’s ever known, discovering not only the secret history of Chinatown but the buried legacy of his own family. Inventive and deeply personal, exploring the themes of pop culture, assimilation, and immigration.

A harrowing yet significant account of Jim Crow’s depravity, Beneath a Ruthless Sun exposes the sinister nature of racial bias and its effect on a small town in central Florida in the late 1950s. Through Pulitzer Prize–winner Gilbert King’s perceptive prose, readers are given the opportunity to fully understand the danger of judicial corruption, white supremacy, and inequality. King’s narrative is a difficult yet enriching account of democracy atrophied by prejudice.

In A Sin by Any Other Name, author Robert W. Lee — a direct descendent of Confederate General Robert E. Lee — wrestles with his family’s legacy and the legacy of his nation with profound honesty. What first began as a response to the 2017 Charlottesville rally, during which white supremacists brandished tiki torches in the name of Robert E. Lee, A Sin by Any Other Name provides the space for Lee to investigate his own past as well as America’s. A transcendent testament to the power of confronting history, Lee’s memoir is a breathtaking testimony of faith.

In Ayaz Virji’s memoir, Love Thy Neighbor: A Muslim Doctor’s Struggle for Home in Rural America, readers witness the aftermath of Trump’s presidency. Virji, who left his position at a Pennsylvania hospital in 2013 to manage a hospital in Dawson, Minnesota, reflects on how the right wing’s rise to power disrupted his community and his own sense of identity. Inspired by Virji’s lecture of the same name, this riveting memoir dares to challenge misconceptions and hate with dialogue, understanding, and optimism. Love Thy Neighbor is an uplifting reminder of how one voice can spark change.

In Regina Porter’s tour-de-force debut, readers meet Agnes Miller and Claude Johnson, a young Black couple who cross paths with white policemen on a Georgia country road in 1966. The horror of the encounter stays with Agnes as the years pass, even as she builds a life with Eddie, a Black Navy man with an affinity for literature. An intriguing portrait of an American family and deferred desires, The Travelers is an ambitious and brilliant novel from start to finish.

When a white high school football star’s altercation with a Black player on the opposing team leads to controversy, he quickly becomes a publicity opp for his family’s congregation, the Blessed Church of White America. Caught between the consequences of his actions and the shadow of his father’s violent past, the journey of Copperhead’s protagonist is an undeniably sobering commentary on white nationalism, class, and the weight of familial legacies.

In Jason Mott’s Hell of a Book, a Black author sets out on a cross-country publicity tour to promote his bestselling novel. That storyline drives Hell of a Book and is the scaffolding of something much larger and more urgent: Mott’s novel also tells the story of Soot, a young Black boy living in a rural town in the recent past, and The Kid, a possibly imaginary child who appears to the author on his tour. Always deeply honest, at times electrically funny, Hell of a Book goes to the heart of racism, police violence, and the hidden costs exacted upon Black Americans and America as a whole.

In the prologue to his latest novel, Colson Whitehead leads readers to “a secret graveyard” where innocent souls were carelessly laid to rest. “Plenty of the boys had talked of [it],” he writes. “but…no one believed them until someone else said it.” Inspired by the dark history of the real-life Dozier School for Boys in Florida, Whitehead’s saga follows Elwood Curtis and his struggle to survive when an encounter with the police lands him behind the walls of the ominous Nickel Academy. An urgent and heartbreaking tale of corruption, childhood, and America’s sins, The Nickel Boys is a haunting novel that demands its readers not look away.

In The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee, Treuer melds history with reportage and memoir. Tracing the tribes’ distinctive cultures from first contact, he explores how the depredations of each era spawned new modes of survival. The devastating seizures of land gave rise to increasingly sophisticated legal and political maneuvering that put the lie to the myth that Indians don’t know or care about property. The forced assimilation of their children at government-run boarding schools incubated a unifying Native identity. Conscription in the US military and the pull of urban life brought Indians into the mainstream and modern times, even as it steered the emerging shape of self-rule and spawned a new generation of resistance. The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee is the essential, intimate story of a resilient people in a transformative era.

Guggenheim fellow Wil Haygood’s journalistic deep-dive into the rise of an Ohio high school’s baseball and basketball teams is an uplifting and illuminating tribute to the students, families, and community that triumphed despite the odds stacked against them. Filled with firsthand accounts and archival photographs, Tigerland captures a year in the lives of the young men whose passion for athletics and bond as a team became a solace from segregation, poverty, and the lingering devastation of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. An inspiration from beginning to end, readers will find themselves yearning for a docuseries adaptation of Haygood’s heart-stirring book.

Penned by law professor and mindfulness practitioner Rhonda Magee, The Inner Work of Racial Justice is a timely exploration of compassion and its potential to help heal the wounds of injustice. Filled with research, reflections, and exercises, Magee offers her audience an invaluable toolkit for combating racial bias and how to heal the harm it causes within our individual lives as well as our communities. It’s an eye-opening essential read for anyone dedicated to progress.

In National Book Award-winner Jacqueline Woodson’s highly acclaimed novel, a 16-year-old girl named Melody stands at the threshold of womanhood on the staircase of her grandparents’ brownstone in Brooklyn. As the novel’s beginning unfolds, Melody confesses that she herself is “a narrative, someone’s almost forgotten story. Remembered.” With lyrical eloquence, Woodson tells the story of two families whose fates are stitched together by Melody’s birth. With every page, Red at the Bone envelops its reader within the luminous song of a masterful storyteller.

Part memoir, part commentary, How to Be an Antiracist urges readers to comprehend that an antiracist world “can become real if we focus on power instead of people.” In the pages that follow, Ibram X. Kendi holds himself and his country equally accountable for the ways in which racism has warped our collective psyche and stunted our ability to imagine what an antiracist world could look like. From a remembrance of wearing colored contacts to lighten the hue of his eyes as a teenager to the ways power is wielded (and often abused) within American society, How to be an Antiracist is a much-needed call to arms for all. It reminds us that if “we know how to be racist” and “we know how to pretend to be not racist,” then we have the capacity to learn “how to be antiracist.”